Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Very much a sequel to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible – Fallout brings back both heroes and villains from the previous film. As we saw in Rogue Nation, the various other government agencies are still struggling to work with the IMF. This isn’t helped when three nuclear warheads slip through Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) hands in the opening action sequence and are about to be sold on the black market to a terrorist with delusions of grandeur.

Forced to work with CIA thug August Walker (Henry Cavill), Hunt and his team (Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg both return) accept their assignment, but, as usually happens, things don’t go according to plan. Rebecca Ferguson and Sean Harris both return to reprise their roles from the last film as a potential love interest for Ethan and a villain harboring and even bigger boner for the spy who put him behind bars.

Although Jeremy Renner isn’t present here, the latest in the franchise includes callbacks to several of the earlier films and in some ways feels like a final chapter to the series (while still leaving the door open if Cruise and company wish to return).

The final act ramps up the impossibility to an 11 for an entertaining, if completely ludicrous, prolonged action sequence which made me both grin and shake my head at the same time. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie isn’t afraid to go for the big moments, and several of those pay off this time around. There are some flaws, such as a somewhat convoluted middle act, the most obvious twist possible, and the script under-utilizing its female cast (including Ferguson, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, and the return of Michelle Monaghan). Neither the best nor worst of the franchise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout delivers the impossiblest mission yet in an enjoyable summer blockbuster.